Bike safety advocate Tim Potter earns special recognition

April 11, 2017

Tim Potter of Surplus and Recycling received the award 2017 Bicycle Friendly America Leadership Award from the League of American Bicyclists.

Potter was recognized for his efforts with the Bike Friendly America program. After advocating to create a a similar program for colleges, Potter played a major role in developing the application process and the program itself.

Potter also helps neighboring communities outside the university improve their bike friendliness so bike safety is encouraged beyond MSU’s campus. In addition, he is a League certified instructor, so he can officially teach bike safety.

“It’s nice on campus, it’s just getting to and from campus that’s sometimes a challenge if you’re riding from home,” Potter said.

Potter helps MSU and other universities become focused around what the League of American Bicyclists refer to as The 5 E’s for a Bicycle Friendly America: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation and planning.

“There’s not a lot of resources in bike advocacy in general, so I like to help out where I can or where I see a need,” Potter said.

Potter was quick to give credit to his boss, Kris Jolley, from IPF’s Surplus and Recycling team.

“To get recognized for doing something, it felt kind of weird,” Potter said with a laugh. “It was also very humbling. I thanked my boss here on campus who encourages me to do this work. It’s nice to have that support from my leadership to help others around the country.”